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Commerce's VR display a real-life hit at Progressive St. Louis Boat and Sport Show

Attendees at the Progressive St. Louis Boat and Sport Show watch a short virtual reality film about the Twin Lakes Area. The VR display is the centerpiece of the Mountain Home Chamber of Commerce's booth display.(Photo: Submitted photo)

A virtual reality display of some of the most popular activities across the Twin Lakes Area recently helped the Mountain Home Area Chamber of Commerce win a trade show’s Best Booth Display award.

The Chamber took the award last weekend at the Progressive St. Louis Boat and Sport Show, which featured more than 170 booths. A VR movie of local activities was the centerpiece of the Chamber’s exhibit and made its trade-show debut at the event.

“The feedback we got was extremely positive,” Chamber President and CEO Jeff Pipkin said. “We got numerous comments on how awesome it was and how they had no idea this area was so beautiful.”

The 3-minute, 55-second VR movie gives viewers glimpses of popular Twin Lakes Area activities like fishing and recreational boating. Viewers are shown the Norfork Dam, the White River and Norfork Lake, among many other sights. The movie also takes viewers into a helicopter to fly over the area, onto the campus of Arkansas State University-Mountain Home and even into the lake as a teen dives off a boat.

The exhibit is shown through Oculus Go VR headsets and give viewers a 360-degree view. Participants can see all around them, providing the viewer with an immersive experience.

“You really need to watch it three or four times to take everything in. It’s a unique experience,” Chamber Executive Vice President Angela Broome said.

“We were very pleased with it,” Pipkin said. “For a while on Saturday, we had people lined up down the aisle waiting to see it.”

Broome said that they did not count the number of people who viewed the film at the trade show, but estimated that the number was in the high hundreds. At the show, the Chamber handed out 600 of its vacation/relocation guides, with most of those people first watching the VR demonstration.

The guides feature a QR code allowing the user to view the Chamber’s film again on their phone through an app. Users can experience the same 360-degree experience by moving their phone around, Chamber officials said.

Mountain Home Area Chamber of Commerce officials (from left) President and CEO Jeff Pipkin, Executive Vice President Angela Broome and Membership and Sales Director Erric Totty recently took the Chamber's new virtual reality display on the road to a St. Louis trade show, where the Chamber won the event's Best Booth Display award. In the above photo, Pipkin and Totty hold the VR headsets used in the display while Broome holds the Best Booth Display award.(Photo: Submitted photo)

“People might have been cautious and not wanted to watch it, then one of their family members would get up there to watch it and shout, ‘Whoa! This is awesome!’ And then that hesitant family member says they will do it, too,” Pipkin said.

The Chamber’s exhibit can accommodate six viewers at time. Three participants can sit inside a BassCat boat shell that the company donated to the Chamber for the exhibit, and another three viewers can sit on tall, swiveling stools in front of the boat.

“I was impressed with how many older people — my age or older — wanted to get up there and sit in the boat,” Pipkin said. “They didn’t want a stool, they wanted in the boat. You knew little kids would like those seats, but adults did, too.”

The VR display began paying immediate dividends that weekend, Chamber officials said. One Twin Lakes Area hotelier attending the trade show received a booking after an attendee saw the VR display and wanted to come visit the area in person.

“He came over to our booth and said, ‘Jeff your little scheme is working,’” Pipkin said with a laugh.

Online requests for the Chamber’s vacation/relocation guide also spiked around the St. Louis area during the trade show, Broome said.

Some people watched the VR video and then bemoaned that they had already made their summer vacation plans, Chamber officials said.

“They said they will be coming here in 2020,” she said. “They said they’re definitely coming here next year.”

The VR display was also a big hit among fellow exhibitors, with many sending their entire staffs over to view the footage.

“We saw that a lot,” Broome said. “Someone would come by on their break, and we’d put them in there to watch it. Then they would send their whole team over to watch it.”

The Chamber plans to take the VR display to trade shows in Minneapolis and Dallas in the coming weeks, officials said. Pipkin said the Chamber would like to add some large signs to the booth promoting the VR experience.

“We need something that says, ‘Watch our free VR movie.’ We had people walk up and ask what we were selling,” he said. “They thought we were there selling the headsets.”

Officials said they plan to loan out the VR display to Chamber members interested in using the exhibit as a recruiting tool.

“We’re going to make it available to folks who can put it to good use and take care of the headsets,” Pipkin said.